Grand Duchess Charlotte of Olympia

Grand Duchess Charlotte Alexandrovna of Olympia (Russian: Шарлотта Александровна Олимпия, Sharlotta Алекса́ндровна Olimpiya; 24 January [O.S. 13 January] 1746 – 3 March 1942) was the eldest daughter of Tsarina Elizabeth I of Olympia and Tsar Alexander I (born Grand Duke Albert of Russia) and the acclaimed demigoddess wife of Loki; Norse deity of Mischief. She married Prince Loki of Asgard, with whom she had several step-children (by her husband`s first marriage), giving her husband sixty-three more children. She was the mother-in-law of Richard Yusupov and a younger sister of Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna Olympia who became the Tsarina of Olympia after the death of Elizabeth [their mother]. One of her daughters; Princess Elena Vladimirovna became the Tsarina of Ivonne; Elena`s husband Tsar Julius IV often snubbed Elena which earned him the hatred of his maternal parents-in-laws, whom greatly despised him and his pompous attitude. Known as Charlotte Christine Alexandrovna the Elder, she was a maternal niece of Grand Duchess Elisabeth of Livonia and thus a direct relative of the several more Emperors and Empresses who occupied the Russian throne until Nicholas II. A prominent hostess in Asgard following her marriage in 1759 to King Loki of Jötunheimr, she was known[by whom?] as the "grandest of the grand duchesses" and had an open rivalry with her various sister-in-laws.

Appearance and personality
Charlotte was noted for her attractiveness and sense of style. When Archduke Joseph of Austria visited Olympia in search of brides, Empress Maria Theresa noted that Charlotte was "said to be v[er]y pretty." Her own relatives even called her the most "beautiful grand duchess of the Imperial family." When they first met, her future husband Loki (then only Prince Loki of Asgard), admired her "wonderfully expressive eyes," her "seemly demure appearance," and the "gentleness with which she carried herself." At her wedding, Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria wrote of her that "the Grand Duchess is beautiful and simply elegant. She is a most beautiful woman with whom words cannot describe; she is a pagan of beauty. A woman with a seemly invisible gentleness to her that pits others at ease. The air with which she carries herself with, is simply beautiful." At their coronation, her step-daughter-in-law, Queen Hela, noted that that "she is stunning for a demigoddess; a beautiful young woman whom my father has fallen in love with. I shall reserve my true feelings on the matter until I can get a feel for her personality." In 1910, author Ariana Gibson wrote that Charlotte was "a most stately, magnificent looking princess. Despite her status as the consort of the realm of the Ice Giants, she always had a melancholy look on her face as if she was reliving a horrific memory of great proportions."

Charlotte was famous for her wittiness and sociability. Meriel Buchanan attended one of Charlotte's dinner parties at Charlotte Christine Palace, and she wrote that Charlotte "know[s] exactly what to say to each individual person, a sense of unwavering confidence and pride. She is wise but never arrogant or rude; she knows what she needs to say in order to gain influence over them. Her influence is like a rope wrapping around the neck of somebody; a dangerous influence all of the way. Yet she is kind, charitable and gentle towards her guests.” When she visited Sofia, Bulgaria, she impressed A.A. Mossolov, head of the court Chancellery, with her humbleness and gentleness. He wrote: "The Grand Duchess was a soothing force to the people at the meeting; her mere presence calmed them and she seemed rather entertained by the antics of my children." Author Elinor Glyn reflected that Charlotte "had a very highly cultivated and far-seeing mind, with a delightful sense of humour, and was adored by everyone. Her levelheadedness helped to balance her husband out; a delightful balance, as he was far more of a spitfire than her, considering the environment in which she was raised."

Charlotte was interested in literature. In late 1909, she invited Hela to come to Russia and by association the Mortal World with her to meet Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia and Elinor Glyn. Hela, though not impressed with the Russian Grand Duchess whom she considered pompous, was instead rather delighted to discover the interests of her rational and level-headed stepmother. She told Glyn: "My stepmother is the most kindest, gentlest and most humble woman that I ever met; if you are to write a book about anybody, base a character on her, for she is the light [in the center of] of my life and I can think of no better inspiration than her, the woman that changed my life for the better." Glyn produced a piece of fiction called A Gentle Dusk, which she dedicated to both Charlotte and Hela, saying "her humble appreciation of the finished work is a source of the deepest gratification to me. This piece to me will stand the test of time, for it is one of the most geniue sources of information about the Olympia court and it`s mysteries." Glyn modeled one of the characters [Empress Zaria] after Charlotte while the other character [Imperial Princess Kendrix] was modeled after Hela.

Like her husband, Charlotte loved the arts, especially painting and theater plays. After her brother-in-law`s death, Charlotte succeeded him as president of the Academy of Fine Arts of Asgard.

Charlotte was a modest and humble woman. The painter Henry Jones Thaddeus attended one of Charlotte`s parties where she and her guests sat on heavily padded, wooden bare-backed chairs in a room with little furniture and only an enormous painting of the frowning Charlotte and her family members hung. When she and her husband traveled aboard in the Mortal World, she liked to frequent the often worn-down hotels, preferring modesty and simple hotels rooms rather than the lavish palace she lived in on Asgard while her husband preferred refined cushioning and high-class lavish rooms. During Nicholas II's reign, she was often found living in a highly-secured country-side estate and preferred to keep her servants isolated from the outside world in order to protect them; they in turn found comfort in her mere presence. Her Russian countryside estate, while not overly lavish by any means was rather large and nobody could cross into it without the direct permission of Charlotte who had enacted a powerful barrier over it. As such: her, her family and the people who worked and lived on the grounds of her estate were heavily protected and never feared anything, forgetting that the outside world existed.

Early life
Charlotte Christine Marie Alexandrine Elisabeth Eleonore Alexandrovna Olympia was born a duchess of the Grand Duchal House of Olympia to Elizabeth Matilda, Grand Duke of Olympia - the then Grand Duke of Olympia and her consort, Alexander Albert, Grand Duke of Russia - in the Schloss Ludwigslust. Born during the reign of her maternal grandparents; her mother was not first in line to the Imperial throne when she was born, rather she was sixth in the line of succession. She was eight years old when her maternal grandfather died in 1754. Her maternal grandmother remarried twice more but due to the infertility of her next two wives, no further children were produced.

Marriage
Charlotte married Loki, the only son of Laufey. She was one of the very few Royals with extremely powerful divine heritage to ever marry an adoptive male dynast of the Asgardian Royal Family. She had been engaged to Albert, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, but broke it off after Loki proposed to her.

Charlotte and Loki married on 28 August 1759. The wedding took place in the chapel of the Christine Palace. It was more lavish as the wedding of Charlotte`s older sister Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna of Olympia to an Archduke of the Holy Roman Empire. Empress Maria Theresa noted, "The wedding of the Empress`s next-surving child was lavish; the bride and the groom seemed as if they were glowing from the inside out from sheer joy. At this season of the year this town is being completely overwhelmed with people and therefore lots of royals were invited."

As the Asgardian King's daughter-in-law, Charlotte took on two new styles Her Royal Highness and Her Majesty. She retained her style of Her Imperial Highness.

Charlotte and Loki had several stillborn children, as well as four sons and one daughter whom were all born at the same time as each other.

Upon her marriage she took the Norse name of Frigga and added her and her sisters personal patronymic "Alexandrovna" to it. She was a daughter of Emperor Alexander IV of Olympia and his wife, Empress Elizabeth Matilda IV of Olympia, and her father wished to emphasize the exalted ancestry of his own daughters with the patronymic "Alexandrovna."

Religion
For three years, Charlotte and Loki could not marry, because Charlotte refused to convert from the Greek Orthodox Church to the Scandinavian religion. Loki's mother, Queen Laufey was disappointed by Charlotte's refusal to convert: She herself had converted from Lutheranism to Norse Orthodoxy, and she thought that the Scandinavian Orthodox church was “quite good enough for any daughter-in-law of hers.” She told Loki that she hoped that Charlotte would "become Norse in body and in soul," indicating her hope that Charlotte would convert. Yet, Charlotte stubbornly clung to her Greek Orthodoxy faith, further infuriating her mother-in-law.

Loki's father Fárbauti finally agreed to let Loki marry Charlotte without insisting on her conversion to Scandinavian traditions or the customs of the Norse. Every single bride of a Prince from the Seven Realms needed to convert to Norse Christianity before Charlotte, so Charlotte's decision was shocking and unprecedented. Lord Augustus Loftus noted that, "It is a matter of surprise to find out that a Foreign Princess of divine birth was allowed to keep her religion when she married her husband; truly she has set a precedent for future generations. Her marriage is the first of it`s kind; it is revolutionary." American politician and later 26th United States Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish wrote “She paved the ways for future generations; truly an inspiration" with American Diplomat, Eugene Schuyler writing “The Grand Duchess was allowed to retain the Greek Orthodox faith of her birth even after marrying her husband. Truly unexpected, maybe that is where the precedent of keeping one`s faith they were baptized in even after marrying somebody from a different religion comes from?"

Charlotte set the precedent for brides who did not have to convert to the Norse customs and faith to marry members of the Asgardian Royal Family. At the time of Charlotte`s marriage, Archduchess Marianne of Austria wrote to her mother Empress Elizabeth Alexandrovna Olympia, "Empress Elizabeth of Russia tells me that since Lottie has been allowed to retain her religion even after she married Loki, that this right will be conceded to any and all Princesses in the future who wish to retain their previous faith. I`m not quite sure if I believe her to be honest. One can never tell with that scheming woman.” Several decades later the same precedent would be used by Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (later Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia) in order to keep her Lutheran faith even after marriage to a Russian Grand Duke with Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (later Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia) following in her footsteps.

After a bout with diphtheria in 1869 Charlotte converted to the Norse faith; her siblings were left furious after learning that she had converted from her previous faith to embrace the religion of her husband. Having predicted their response, she asked both of her parents: "Please do not tell my darling siblings until I write again."

George Vane-Tempest, 5th Marquess of Londonderry, the British Ambassador to Imperial Russia, defended Charlotte's conversion: “After her wedding to the notorious King Loki, she had increasingly been drawn to the faith and beliefs of her husband in the hopes that they would help to protect her husband and subsequent children born during their marriage; she was like any mother, hoping to protect her family unit from harm." Her husband [Loki] was pleased when he heard of her conversion to his faith and allegedly, Charlotte promised to name one of their sons after Loki's father [Fárbauti] and one of their daughters after Loki's mother [Laufey].

Life in the Seven Realms
Charlotte lived in a wing of the Palace of Valaskjalf situated in the middle of the Realm of Asgard of the Seven Realms, on the World Tree.

Charlotte was famous for being one of the best hostesses in the Royal Family. Her Grand Ducal court was the most cosmopolitan and popular one in the capital; with even Hela [her step-daughter] agreeing with her in that regard. The painter Henry Jones Thaddeus recalled that she was the "ideal hostess" and that "Her Imperial Highness was the life and soul of the salon, the most brilliant contributor to the general discussion. Her children were just as refined; Princess Hela seemed refined but acted as if though she had a steel bar glued to her back to make her sit in a more appropriate manner. Just like her mother; she acted as if she was sitting for a court portrait with her family, a demure Grand Duchess all of the way."

During reign of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, Charlotte and her family members survived the Winter Palace explosion of February 1880. Revolutionaries had planted 125 pounds of dynamite in the dining room, and the Imperial family, as well as the Royal family narrowly avoided death only because Alexander II had unusually gone to dinner late, in order to check on one of the sons of Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna of Russia. She recalled that, "A most horrible smell filled the dining room before there was a loud explosion as if it came from a gun or a speeding train; then the dining room vanished from our view. Darkness covered our eyes and we breathed in a sigh of relief when it cleared from our view." She reflected that "If the Czar had not been delayed in his arrival, I shudder to think that we could have shared the same fate [as the dining room]." Loki was furious when he learned of the revolutionary attack on the Winter Palace in the Russian Empire and immediately ordered them home for their own safety; Charlotte having had enough of the Russian Empire quickly complied and left without a word to the Imperial family.

The Queen looked down on Catherine Dolgorukova for she was a mere noblewoman not a member of a reigning dynasty; furthermore, Charlotte had divine blood running through her veins while Catherine did not. These and other reasons led to her disdain for Catherine to bleed into a seething hatred. She privately criticized Alexander II for his obsession with Catherine: "Such a harlot; she is a mere bastard, not worthy to look at the Emperor or even be there by his side. How dare he prioritize his mistress over his legal wife! How dare he!" She resented him for forcing the Russian Imperial family to accept Catherine, and she expressed her anger in a letter to the late Empress Maria's brother, Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine: “To think that such a man has such a harlot whom wraps him around her fingers as if he was a toy! Does he not see? He is damaging the Russian monarchy! He is damaging the image of my daughter and if he wishes to have her alive and not dead at the hands of Hela, he had better shape up or else.."

The Queen had a distant relationship with the biological parents in-laws of her husband [Loki]. They disliked the fact that half of her heritage was comprised of human ancestry while the other half was divine ancestry. Her adoptive parents-in-law were far more welcoming than Loki`s biological parents. Charlotte was heartbroken and horrified upon learning in 13 August, 1891, that one of her daughters had been killed in a car accident with her Russian husband. Her husband [Loki] was similarly horrified with the couple returning to Russia to see to it that their daughter and her Russian husband [a son of Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna] were properly buried as was stated in their final will. During the burial ceremony, her parents [Elizabeth] and [Alexander] reflected that "she seemed as if she was carved from literal, living, breathing stone; she was the literal personification of stoicism. She seemed as if she didn`t hold much interest in the burial itself but rather in the silence and quietness it would give her. In her mind, she probably would have loved to bury her daughter [Ethel] in peace, preferably somewhere pleasant back in the Seven Realms; probably on Asgard. Who can blame her? They made the burial ceremony sound as if it was a party instead of a burial." After the Borki train disaster in which Alexander III, Maria Feodorovna, and their children narrowly escaped death, Charlotte was left utterly horrified after Marie allegedly said, "We shall never have such a chance again", furiously chastising her sister-in-law.

Charlotte had a close relationship with Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra, though she privately disapproved of Alexandra`s haughty persona. On 14 June 1897, the Boston Daily Globe reported that she had "become one of the last remaining links to the inside court of Imperial Russia`s Tsar and Tsarina." At this time, Empress Alexandra had given birth to her third daughter Grand Duchess Maria. The following year Charlotte gave birth to quadruplet children while visiting the Gatchina Palace with Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra, deciding to name one of her sons [Nicholas Nicole Alexandra] after the Emperor and one of her daughters [Alix Natalya Alexandra] after the Empress respectively. In addition, she named another one after her baby daughters [Margrethe Alexandrine Brunhildr Ingrid Catherine Hedvig Sophia Ulrika Eleonora Sofia Yelisaveta Elizaveta Elizabeth] after several famed Russian and Danish female rulers and consorts. Alexandra and Nicholas were surprised and elated by Charlotte`s decision to name two of her children after both of them. In the year of 1912, the only living brother of Empress Nicholas, Grand Duke Michael of Russia married a commoner, which led to the Grand Duke being stripped of his military command, imperial honors, and right as the heir presumptive to serve as regent for Tsesarevich Alexei (the youngest child and only son Emperor Nicholas] should Emperor Nicholas die prematurely. However, Emperor Nicholas overruled the existing law and nominated his oldest daughter Grand Duchess Olga as regent with his wife Empress Alexandra as guardian during Alexei's minority. Charlotte was wary against the possibility of letting Olga serve as regent during the minority of the young Tsarevich should Nicholas II die while Alexei was still a minor, stating in a letter to him "there is a subtle danger to allowing your eldest daughter to assume command of Russia; it will only end badly for your beloved wife and your poor children. She could be manipulated or worse still violently killed like several of my younger siblings were! I just worry about the safety of that poor child." In 1916, after Grand Duchess Maria approached Empress Alexandra about a potential marriage between Grand Duchess Olga and her second son Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich with the expected result of the Empress refusing; Maria was then approached by Charlotte and her husband Loki who desired a match with Maria`s second son Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich to her second-eldest child and first daughter [Elizabeth]. The Grand Duchess, honestly surprised by the sly tendencies of her fellow Grand Duchess agreed to the marriage proposal; they even approached the Emperor and his wife to ask for permission. The Emperor reluctantly relented to the marriage much to the fury of his wife [Alexandra] who stated she could not let "a pure, fresh girl, 18 years his junior" marry a "well used, half worn out, blasé young man." Maria was infuriated by the refusal of the Tsarina to accept the marriage between the two royals who had previously met each other and stated that she would blame her [Alexandra] for "the downfall of the House of Romanov". The two were not happy with their arranged marriages but Charlotte begged her daughter to try to get along with her new fiancée.

During World War I, Charlotte whole-heartedly supported both Russia and Olympia. Married to a Norse man, she was troubled by the outbreak of WW1 but decided that she was now a Russian-Olympian. She reflected: "Russia, the homeland of my father. Olympia, the homeland of my mother; both of you have brought me joy. Neither in my heart nor my mind have I found anything which is not utterly devoted to the Russian fatherland... all the happiness I have known here, all the dreams that have come to me, all the affection and kindness I have received from the late Empress Maria and the late Emperor Alexander II— which has given me a Russian soul and spirit. Here is where I feel free and I shall fight for the Russian fatherland. For there is no greater place than Russia.” She hated Wilhelm II, German Emperor and denounced him in the strongest terms: "The German Emperor is a disgrace to Germany. He represents what I have been taught from my childhood to detest the most—the tyranny of the Hohenzollerns. Him and his family are traitors to the true Germany; her soul and spirit is yearning to break free and spread it`s wings. The despotic house of Prussia must go if there is to be change; if the Emperor asks me to marry any of my daughters off to his sons, I will make to do anything I can to drag his name through the mud! Germany has long disgraced my Russian sisters and brothers, so I shall do the same to them!" The French ambassador Maurice Paléologue was impressed by Charlotte's “long diatribe which made me feel all the sentiments of repressed anger and hatred, of mute and tenacious detestation which the Grand Duchesses of the Olympia Empire have for the despotic house of Prussia. Long have they watched as their Russian relatives foolishly married into German royalty and long have they watched as they suffered; forced to stay in their spots and watch as their Russian relatives were humiliated disgraced by their German relatives-in-law.”

During WWI, Charlotte supervised many projects for both the Russian and Olympia army. She oversaw hospital trains for the troops. Albert Stopford admired Charlotte's efficiency and skill in organizing, claiming that Charlotte "spar[ed] herself no trouble" and was "quite thorough." She developed a charity to give a pension and food to disabled Olympia and Russian soldiers who were sent home. With permission from her parents, she ran the charity with Asgardian state money and money from her personal wealth. She also helped to rehabilitate and integrate these disabled soldiers who were sent home from any of the several warfronts in order to help them with their new civilian lives. She became known as the "Queen of Disabled Soldiers" as she was not afraid to get down and dirty in order to help them.

Escape from Russia
Charlotte was the last of the Grand Duchesses from Olympia and of Loki`s family to escape Revolutionary Russia and one of the very first to die in exile. She remained in the war-torn Caucasus with her two younger sons throughout 1917 and 1918, having fallen ill during the journey there. As the Bolsheviks approached, the group finally escaped aboard a fishing boat to Anapa in 1918. Charlotte spent fourteen months in Anapa, refusing to join her son Alexander in leaving Russia. When opportunities for escape via Constantinople presented themselves she refused to leave for fear that Maria would be killed if she didn`t get her out of Russia. She finally agreed to leave only when Maria was informed by the General of the White Army that his side was losing the war. Charlotte, Maria, Maria`s son Andrei, Andrei's mistress Mathilde Kschessinska, and Andrei and Mathilde's son Vladimir, boarded an Italian ship headed to Venice on 13 February 1920.

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia and Loki encountered Maria and Charlotte at the port of Novorossiysk in early 1920: "The beloved wife whom I had married... when I saw her standing on that ship, smiling softly at me. I admit that I did cry internally a lot for she was the woman I chose to marry even when my biological parents were against me. When even generals found themselves lucky to find a horse cart and an old nag to bring them to safety, my dear sister-in-law Maria and my wife made a long journey in her [Maria] own train. It was battered all right--but it was hers. For the first time in my life I found it a pleasure to kiss her [Maria]..."

She made her way back to the Realm of Asgard with her family where she remained for several years; she returned to the French villa of her sister-in-law, Maria, (now the Hotel La Souveraine), where Maria died on 6 September 1920, aged 66, surrounded by her family at Contrexéville. The death of Maria caused Charlotte to burst into tears and she would not return to the mortal world until most of her Russian relatives-in-law were dead.

Death and inheritance
At some point in either late 1941 or 1942, Charlotte became seriously ill with Influenza. While on her deathbed, she summoned her parents Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and Emperor Alexander Petrovna, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia and Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia in order to approve the will she had had written. Her parents inquired briefly about who had written it, but signed it directly and without first reading it.

When Charlotte finally died on 3 March 1942, she was secretly buried in the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg after a funeral procession from the Mikhailovsky Palace led by the Grand Duchesses` family.

After the funeral, her will was examined and two issues were discovered. Firstly, she had practically disinherited her son Georg on account of his marriage, but asked, "May God grant them happiness and prosperity." Secondly and most importantly, she had left the inheritance of her disinherited son George to her Norse relatives-in-law rather than the Russian Imperial family or even her own biological family. This was a problem as technically her other children [who had not been disinherited] would receive a portion of the inheritance rather than her relatives-in-law.